ST. LOUIS—“I think it is fabulous. I really, really support that kind of thing,” said Aggie Leitheiser, assistant commissioner with the Minnesota Department of Health, at the Peabody Opera House after seeing Shen Yun’s matinee performance on Feb. 15.
Shen Yun Perfroming Arts is a New York-based company that tours at least 100 cities in 20 countries with an all new performance each season.
Shen Yun’s mission is to revitalize traditional Chinese culture through Chinese classical dance.
Ms. Leitheiser commented, “The precision and the attention to detail and the costuming ... I expected a lot of costume changes, but I didn’t expect so many until I was reading the program and these people are going to be changing clothes like crazy, and they are.”
“I really appreciated, though, the clever incorporation of the screen and the way that made it a bigger show, and were able to bring in other elements by having the screen, the dragon, the water and that kind of stuff—that was clever,” she said.
“They are so good, that you don’t get a sense that it is difficult because they make it look so easy,” Ms. Leitheiser explained. “So that was what I was sitting there thinking: ‘They’re doing amazingly difficult stuff and we’re all going, yeah okay, that was fun.’
“The ability to do the kinds of moves that they are doing and make it look so effortless, it’s powerful,” she added.
“The Chinese have lost so much of their culture that it takes a lot of effort and attention to bringing it back. So much was destroyed that they’ve lost so much and to bring it back, I believe that is powerful and I am glad they are doing that,” stated Ms. Leitheiser.
Finally she mentioned that she would introduce the show to young people. They would especially “benefit from this so if there was a way to reach out to kids in dance or gymnastics or any of that kind of thing. It’s so powerful and so physical.”
Reporting by Valorie Avore and Andrew Darin
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has four touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit Shen Yun Performing Arts.
The Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time. We have proudly covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.
